Video Game Sales: Japan data for May 9th – 15th, 2022

For the first time this generation, Xbox has outsold PlayStation for the week in Japan! (Called this one)

Hardware:
1) Nintendo Switch – 65,322
2) Xbox Series – 6,225
3) PlayStation 5 – 2,693
4) Nintendo 3DS – 235
5) PlayStation 4 – 22

Software:
1) Nintendo Switch Sports – 47,525
2) Kirby and the Forgotten Land – 14,903
3) Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – 11,127
4) eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2022 (NS) – 10,372
5) Ring Fit Adventure – 6,839
6) Minecraft (NS) – 6,553
7) The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story (NS) – 6,409
8) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 5,849
9) Mario Party Superstars – 4,360
10) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 4,245

Wow! We have seen Xbox Series and PS5 get remarkable close before, but the latter, even on its lowest weeks, always managed to edge out Microsoft’s platform. After following multiple reports, I felt that 2022 would be the year where we’d see Xbox pass PlayStation in a particular week and post Golden Week really made the most sense. For historical purposes, this is a very cool moment in time. (For head to head/non launch weeks, BTW, and in this generation.)

Xbox has outsold PlayStation in the past, for instance, during the Xbox One’s launch week and a handful of times prior (roughly a dozen instances during the Wii/PS3/Xbox 360 era).

Also of interest, Nintendo Switch will be at 25 million in Japan by June 12th! Here’s to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch all having a successful remainder of 2022! Did you think Xbox Series X | S would ever top PlayStation 5 in Japan?